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Defying nearly universal economists’ expectations, it was just announced that the American economy added a record 2.5 million jobs last month, and the unemployment rate actually fell sharply to 13.3%. Surveyed economists had anticipated a loss of 8.3 million jobs, and a rise in unemployment to 19.5%. The Dow instantly shot up nearly 1,000 upon opening, and we’re nearly back to its pre-coronavirus record levels.

In our latest Liberty Update, we highlight the benefits of the Trump Administration’s deregulation effort, both pre-pandemic and going forward, and how a budding effort among Congressional leftists to impose a moratorium on business mergers would severely undermine that effort. Rasmussen Reports brings excellent news in that regard, as large majorities of Americans agree with Trump rather than hyper-regulatory leftists:

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey shows that 58% of likely U.S. voters approve of Trump’s decision to temporarily limit government regulation of small businesses to help them bounce back. Just 26% are opposed, while 17% are undecided.”

Sadly but perhaps predictably, those on the left stubbornly disagree:

The president’s action has triggered criticism from some. While 70% of Republicans and 59% of voters not affiliated with either major party agree with the decision to temporarily limit government regulation of small businesses, just 44% of Democrats share that view.”

Nevertheless, this is welcome news, as Americans maintain faith in what gave us the strongest economy in human history when the coronavirus pandemic suddenly hit – deregulation and letting America’s free market forces work.

Nonfarm payrolls grew far more than expected in February as companies continued to hire amid a growing coronavirus scare. The Labor Department reported Friday that the U.S. economy added 273,000 new jobs during the month, while the unemployment rate was 3.5%. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had been looking for payroll growth of 175,000 and a 3.5% jobless level. Average hourly earnings grew by 3% over the past year, in line with estimates.”

Although the effects of the coronavirus create uncertainty going forward, the Trump Bump has continued.

Americans already expressed record satisfaction on economic conditions in the U.S., over three years into President Trump’s tenure. Turns out that things are even better than we initially realized, as employment data from the end of 2019 was just significantly updated:

From our friends at the Senate Joint Economic Committee (JEC), another helpful perspective on how President Trump’s economic agenda has helped those who need it most, in contrast to his predecessor who only claimed his policies pursued that end:

More phenomenal news from Gallup. Consumer spending accounts for approximately two-thirds of the U.S. economy, and economic confidence has now reached its highest point since 2000, when the mainstream media couldn’t stop talking about how great things were. Thank you, deregulation and tax cuts.

From the official federal Bureau of Labor Statistics and our friends at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), a nice visualization of how the Trump economic agenda has most benefited those in the lower-wage industries starting in 2018 after tax reform took effect. So much for leftists’ class warfare attacks on tax cuts and deregulation.

In our Liberty Update commentary entitled “No, Scandinavia Doesn’t Vindicate Socialism” this week, we rightly ridicule admitted socialist Bernie Sanders, including his odd claim that “we now have an economy that is fundamentally broke and grotesquely unfair.” Well, as this Gallup survey illustrates, he’s swimming upstream against American public opinion. Specifically, in a survey that Gallup has conducted periodically since 2001, the public’s view of the job market has now hit an all-time record high:

Sorry, Socialists

Perhaps this helps explain why Sanders has suddenly plummeted in 2020 Democratic candidate surveys, although one wonders how long people like Elizabeth Warren can avoid the same fate.

After years of Obama economic malaise, American Enterprise Institute (AEI) highlights how worker productivity is finally surging following the election of Donald Trump and implementation of his deregulatory and tax-cutting agenda:

Worker Productivity Finally Surging

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Here’s why that’s important, as AEI’s James Pethokoukis notes:

[P]roductivity increased at a rapid 3.6% annualized rate during the first three months of this year. On a year-ago basis, this puts productivity growth at 2.4%, the fastest pace since early 2010 and far better than the 1% pace that has typified the post-financial crisis expansion. As Barclays economist Blerina Uruci told The Wall Street Journal, ‘That means we can grow at a faster pace on a more sustained basis. It also means the economy can run hotter for longer without causing inflationary pressure.’ Moreover, consistent 2%-plus productivity growth makes a 3% real GDP economy less of a stretch.”

Last week, new jobless claims fell below the milestone 200,000 level, and to the lowest point since the 1960s (when the labor force was significantly smaller). In this chart, note also the steep drop starting in 2017 with the tax-cutting and deregulatory agenda that arrived with the Trump Administration, after the number of new claims had plateaued toward the end of the Obama Administration:

People like Barack Obama, rationalizing his unsatisfactory economic stewardship, assured us that manufacturing was a thing of the past, and not coming back. Well, a funny thing happened following his departure:

While attention can be distracted by shiny objects elsewhere, a nice new illustration of the U.S. economy’s revitalization beginning in 2017, as the procession of deregulation and tax-cuts revitalized an economic cycle previously on weary legs:

Consumer spending accounts for approximately two-thirds of the U.S. economy, and this helpful chart from the U.S. Senate’s Joint Economic Committee illustrates why our economy suddenly turbocharged over the past two years from its decade of sluggishness that we were told was the “new normal”:

From the left-leaning Pew Research Center, note how something caused the number of Americans responding that the state of our economy is good to turbocharge past the Europeans and Japanese around 2016. Perhaps Paul Krugman of The New York Timeshas a theory.

Obama apologists desperately claim that the current economic acceleration is somehow attributable to him, never mind that the acceleration began as soon as the Trump Administration began reversing Obama policies by cutting taxes and reducing regulation. In The Wall Street Journal today, two Arizona State University professors – Nobel laureate Edward Prescott and Lee Ohanian – debunk that claim in a commentary entitled “The Good Times Can Roll On.” As an ASU alumnus, it offers particular pleasure to recommend their entire piece for reading and passing along to others who may need it:

It’s clear the recovery ended in 2014 because the two hallmarks of recovery – investment’s share of gross domestic product and labor input relative to the adult population – stopped increasing. This left a large gap between actual output and the output level that would have occurred had the economy recovered to its prerecession growth path. According to our calculations, the U.S. cumulatively lost about $18 trillion in income and output between 2007 and 2016. Everything suggested this shortfall would persist or even grow.

Yet economic performance began to improve beginning in the first quarter of 2017. Real GDP growth accelerated to about 2.7% between the end of 2016 and the second quarter of 2018, up from about 2% between 2014 and the end of 2016.”

Inexplicably, U.S. economic growth has surged in the first and second quarters of both 2017 and 2018 after a deregulatory and tax-cutting presidential administration replaced a hyper-regulatory and tax-raising one:

From our friends at American Enterprise Institute, predictions from people like Barack Obama on the U.S. manufacturing sector’s demise were greatly exaggerated. As one can see from the image below, the sharp upward trajectory since Donald Trump’s election has taken American manufacturing output to a record high: